Commuting: Live where the property is affordable, commute to work (an area where property is expensive and salaries are higher).

VS

Reverse Commuting: Live where the property is expensive, commute to work (an area where property is cheaper and salaries are lower).

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Uh. This. I work in DC. For the federal government. And not as a contractor. Which means I can't afford to live anywhere within a 30 mile radius of the DC border without living in total squalor.

If I worked in the suburbs where my home is, I'd be making at least $15k less annually. And then wouldn't be able to afford my home.

And in the DC Metro area, it doesn't matter if you're going in to or out of DC, all ten rush hours per day suck.

A friend of mine lives in a apt right across from the Ballson Metro. One of the other tennants owned his 3 br setup there. He came to my buddy (29) and said Look im gonna sell, get your stuff together and make an offer and ill give you priority. sale is in two weeks on a given Friday.

So he goes out and gets his chickens in line. Price is 200k. My friend then offers the guy 190 makes his offer for 190 and locked it. Saturday morning, seller shows up and is in shock. 'uh what were you thinking man??'. Guy moved the shiat in 24 hours for 375k to some 50 year old lawyer who was tired of having to make the commute from Manassas.

CruJones:I did this when I lived in Memphis. Had a house downtown on the river, but worked way out east. It was great, because I was going against traffic every day, but living where the fun was, rather than vice versa.

I did that back in the day for the same reason. I didn't own a car and would basically be stranded if I lived near work. My commute wasn't short but I was usually one of maybe 2-3 people on a commuter train car going against the flow of traffic so it was nice and quiet. It was better to get home at 7 and be downtown than 6:00 in the middle of nowhere.

When we lived in Charlotte I was reverse commuting before it was cool. We had just gotten married and moved down there for work because that's what good hillbillies do. I had been to NC often as a kid thanks to some family property on Lake Norman (smug). In that newlywed phase we didn't have a lot of money and didn't want to rent to pay someone else's mortgage, so my boss hooked me up with her Realtor friend. We wind up finding a nice little ranch in a "re-emerging" neighborhood a mile outside "Uptown" with a great-sized lot by city standards.

(There's a buzzword...re-emerging. Otherwise known as buying into a neighborhood where all the original whites fled for the suburbs and now populated by a mix of poor/lower middle class whites, immigrant cultures, and illegals after the crime moved to other neighborhoods.)

Five minute commute into the skyscrapers, ten minutes home. When I wound up working in the suburbs it was fifteen minutes north in the morning, fifteen minutes back south. It was a great little neighborhood too. Low crime, nice neighbors, a great little mix of chain and locally owned shops and restaurants, and being in the center of the metro everything in the suburbs was 20 minutes away.

We decided to move back home to be closer to family - we're not into seven hour drives each way with two kids and two dogs several times a year. Sold the re-emerging house for a sweet profit and kept my job as a telecommuter.

dittybopper:El Morro: HMS_Blinkin: The My Little Pony Killer: I have a hard time feeling bad for somebody who chooses to work 35 miles away from where they live.

This. Just move closer to your job. Crazy concept, I know.

Yeah... because it's just that easy. You ass.

In any case, I had a 3 hour round trip commute for a while. It was hell. My condolences to those of you on that kind of grind. These days, if a song starts on the radio when I get in my car, it's still playing when I pull into the parking lot at my job. It's tough to put into words just how wonderful a short commute is. It's a quality of life issue, really.

Meh.

I spend 2 hours a day in my car, an hour to work in the morning, and an hour back home.

In the morning, traffic is light, and I either chat on the radio with my local ham radio buddies, or I listen to Morning Edition on NPR to catch up on the news. On the ride home, I get on the long-range radio if propagation is there, or I listen to All Things Considered.

Just yesterday I spent most of my commute "talking" to Wayne N5YFC down near Baton Rouge, LA. I put talking in quotes because we were using Morse. Anyway, being able to talk to new and interesting people and places adds a bit of excitement to the commute.

The only time it's "brutal" is in the winter when I have to drive slow and it takes twice as long, and just occasionally when there is a particularly bad accident.

Our office is near Deerfield IL, and I have to drive to down town Chicago a couple times a week to visit client locations. Particularly during the evening rush hour(s), the traffic going into the city is a LOT worse the traffic heading north. Granted, the reversible lanes take up some of the slack. I absolutely HATE sitting in traffic, just makes my blood boil. Lucky for me I live very close to the office, so I am on the clock for these commutes. It's hard to get frustrated while being paid to sit in traffic. We have more then a few employees who live very far from the office, and then biatch and moan about the commute. I agree with the posts higher up, move as close to work as possible.

Disaster Transport:Actually, the crappy commute in the Chicago area is the suburb-to-suburb, east - west commute. It took at least 50+ minutes for me to get to my old job, 22 miles away. I would have loved to take the train, but the train system is just radial in and out of the city, so that meant one 55 minute ride into the city and another 45 minute ride out to the other suburb. Until we accept that people need mass transit from suburb to suburb it will continue to be a problem. I will never ever take another job that's over a 30 minute commute ever again, even if trains are an option. I miss quality time a home too much.

Radial system and patchwork suburban bus system - that right there is makes for the nightmare that is ChicagoLand (and many other big city/urban areas). The article notes that some companies have shuttle buses, but that is nowhere near all of them. For those people who work for smaller companies, you better hope that some bus is going your way. Also, the ChicagoLand commuter bus schedule favors those who live in the suburbs in that there is a flurry of buses from the subdivisions to the train in the AM and the reverse in the PM. For the rest of us, it is about one bus every hour or so (depending on the route of course).

This article paints somewhat of a rosy picture of the "reverse commuter", but the reality is that it is far less workable to people who do not have the luxury of working for some big corp entity with a shuttle. I mean, obviously the reverse commute can be done, but Chicagoland has a long way to go in tweaking the "after the train ride" transit system so that it is viable option for the masses. As of now, if it works for you, consider yourself very lucky.

I am just happy that I work at home and have a car. Otherwise, I would not live in the strip-mall-suburban-wasteland that is ChicagoLand.

Rent Party:bopis: Rent Party: Chicago is one of the few midwestern cities I'd move to, primarily because of the CTA. I love those trains, and it's a great town.

I used to love the CTA until I had to use it everyday.

I just spent a week in Oak Park, and rode the green line into the city center and back every day. All I could think was "man, I could do this every day."

What happens if you do that every day for months on end?

I live in the very NW corner of the city and take Bus->L->Bus each direction to my workplace. Have for years, year round. The kennedy is always a parking lot. I like being on my feet and i read books and listen to music or putz with my phone each way. Free exercise, no miles on the car and saves gas. The only part of it that can really suck is that I take the 80 irving, so during the summer Cub fans crowd the bus. When it's freezing out, I make soup and bring it along. All depends on what you make of it I suppose...

Commuting: Live where the property is affordable, commute to work (an area where property is expensive and salaries are higher).

VS

Reverse Commuting: Live where the property is expensive, commute to work (an area where property is cheaper and salaries are lower).

[synapticnulship.com image 425x340]

Uh. This. I work in DC. For the federal government. And not as a contractor. Which means I can't afford to live anywhere within a 30 mile radius of the DC border without living in total squalor.

If I worked in the suburbs where my home is, I'd be making at least $15k less annually. And then wouldn't be able to afford my home.

And in the DC Metro area, it doesn't matter if you're going in to or out of DC, all ten rush hours per day suck.

A friend of mine lives in a apt right across from the Ballson Metro. One of the other tennants owned his 3 br setup there. He came to my buddy (29) and said Look im gonna sell, get your stuff together and make an offer and ill give you priority. sale is in two weeks on a given Friday.

So he goes out and gets his chickens in line. Price is 200k. My friend then offers the guy 190 makes his offer for 190 and locked it. Saturday morning, seller shows up and is in shock. 'uh what were you thinking man??'. Guy moved the shiat in 24 hours for 375k to some 50 year old lawyer who was tired of having to make the commute from Manassas.

That commute is what keeps the prices high.

/Arlington near Westover

When I moved out here for a job at the Pentagon, I looked at the apartments across the street and they wanted $2,700-3,000 for a 1000 sq ft 2 bedroom and $4,500-5,000 for a 3 br. Even not having to pay commuting costs that's ridiculous. For the price of a 3 bedroom apartment you could get a $1 million mortgage, which even in Arlington you could afford a house.

YixilTesiphon:HMS_Blinkin: The My Little Pony Killer: I have a hard time feeling bad for somebody who chooses to work 35 miles away from where they live.

This. Just move closer to your job. Crazy concept, I know.

What precisely were we supposed to do when my wife worked in Downtown Houston and I worked in the Energy Corridor, 17 miles west on I-10?

The Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, Texas (METRO) provides public transportation to the area. Line 75, originally known as The Energy Corridor Connector, operates during weekdays. The line, which began service on January 25, 2010, transports people who work and/or live in the corridor to area businesses and restaurants. People coming from Downtown Houston and Midtown Houston can connect to the 75 connector via 228 Addicks and 229 Kingsland/Addicks through the Addicks Park and Ride. The 75 connector also connects with routes along Westheimer Road and Memorial Drive. In January 2011, the name of the route was changed to 75 Eldridge Crosstown, and the southern terminus of the line was extended to Mission Bend Park and Ride, enabling more convenient connections with the Westchase district and the International Corridor/New Chinatown area.

The My Little Pony Killer:I have a hard time feeling bad for somebody who chooses to work 35 miles away from where they live.

I used to feel to feel the same way. I purchased my home a couple mile from where I worked and then my employer relocated 10 miles away.

Add in a significant other, it gets even more complicated. Mine works downtown and my job moved to a tech center on the opposite side of town. Luckily, a train line will open a few blocks away in a year and we'll both be able to commute by train.

The guy from the article lives at the mid-point between his job and his wife's job.

Our economy shifts too quickly and has sprawled too widely to make it realistic to pack up and buy a new house everytime a job situation. Many people are just lucky to have a job and can't get choosey about where it's located.

Jarhead_h:It's real simple people, move to were you work. If that means a cheap apartment instead of a giant mortgage, oh well. BTW you're insane to buy anything less than several acres anyway, because if you buy land you can build a shop or grow a cashcrop - something to make the land pay for itself. A "house" is just a never ending series of expenses culminating in a market crash where you end up owing more than it can be sold for.

Moving to where you work can be tricky if you have a significant other who also works. Also rent vs buy is very much a case-by-case. There is no one size fits all. With a 4.XX% mortgage locked for 30 years it is moderately cheaper for me to buy (where I live) than it is to rent, and that's in Year 1. Add in a few years of even modest rent inflation and it becomes considerably cheaper. That said - if you're planning on moving soon, aren't taking on a mortgage that gets you a big tax break or are in an area with cheap rental then renting might be a better choice.

trickymoo:So he goes out and gets his chickens in line. Price is 200k. My friend then offers the guy 190 makes his offer for 190 and locked it. Saturday morning, seller shows up and is in shock. 'uh what were you thinking man??'. Guy moved the shiat in 24 hours for 375k to some 50 year old lawyer who was tired of having to make the commute from Manassas.

In case anyone thinks you can buy a 3 bed apartment in Ballston for only $375k - that price is a steal and doesn't reflect the HOA dues, which will be in the range of $600 to $1200/month.

First of all, what's described in the article hasn't been considered a "reverse" commute in Chicago since the 1980s. That train left the station decades ago, if you'll pardon the pun. Secondly, the Metra/UPRR is a fast, comfotable way to get to work and the people quoted in TFA should quit their farking whining. An hour each morning and evening where you can read a book or play Texas Hold'em on your iPad guilt-free? Who wouldn't want that?

I recently was able to get a job much closer to home. My old job was a suburb-to-suburb commute so, although it was 56 miles (one way), it didn't take much more than an hour. I never moved closer because I didn't care for living in the area around my old job and I had a good deal on housing (and still do) where I live.

I love my new job so much. I can bike or even walk to work. Also, I feel I get the best of both worlds. My town is a formerly rural, now suburban town north of New Orleans. It has a few cool restaurants and bars, a good public library system, and a very nice grocery store downtown. Plus, since it is close to New Orleans, you get cool stuff. I heard Terrence Simien and the Zydeco experience for free last Thursday. Granted, it is not Frenchmen St. in the Marigny but it does have more cool things than a typical small town.

The only major issue is that, between the many little rivers that require bridges, and the suburban sprawl hell that surrounds it, it can be hard to get in and out of town during peak hours.

Jarhead_h:It's real simple people, move to were you work. If that means a cheap apartment instead of a giant mortgage, oh well. BTW you're insane to buy anything less than several acres anyway, because if you buy land you can build a shop or grow a cashcrop - something to make the land pay for itself. A "house" is just a never ending series of expenses culminating in a market crash where you end up owing more than it can be sold for.

beakerxf:The My Little Pony Killer: I have a hard time feeling bad for somebody who chooses to work 35 miles away from where they live.

I used to feel to feel the same way. I purchased my home a couple mile from where I worked and then my employer relocated 10 miles away.

Add in a significant other, it gets even more complicated. Mine works downtown and my job moved to a tech center on the opposite side of town. Luckily, a train line will open a few blocks away in a year and we'll both be able to commute by train.

The guy from the article lives at the mid-point between his job and his wife's job.

Our economy shifts too quickly and has sprawled too widely to make it realistic to pack up and buy a new house everytime a job situation. Many people are just lucky to have a job and can't get choosey about where it's located.

Yeah, I commuted 85 miles one-way for the better part of the year. Thankfully, it was all highway and interstate, so it was only about 75 minutes, but it was all due to marrying a woman in another town and not having any real options in between. I immediately started looking for a new job, though, and in about a year found a job in town so my new commute is only about 15-20 minutes, even commuting into the city center.

Those saying "just get a new job" can be way off, but at the same time, it can be possible to change jobs, even in this economy.

When I moved out here for a job at the Pentagon, I looked at the apartments across the street and they wanted $2,700-3,000 for a 1000 sq ft 2 bedroom and $4,500-5,000 for a 3 br. Even not having to pay commuting costs that's ridiculous. For the price of a 3 bedroom apartment you could get a $1 million mortgage, which even in Arlington you could afford a house.

The My Little Pony Killer:I have a hard time feeling bad for somebody who chooses to work 35 miles away from where they live.

Sometimes you don't choose to. I was transferred to another department and went from a 10 min. commute to 70 minute commute. But I did choose to live in a town that had a train line to the city so that I wouldn't have to drive.

busy chillin':Jarhead_h: It's real simple people, move to were you work. If that means a cheap apartment instead of a giant mortgage, oh well. BTW you're insane to buy anything less than several acres anyway, because if you buy land you can build a shop or grow a cashcrop - something to make the land pay for itself. A "house" is just a never ending series of expenses culminating in a market crash where you end up owing more than it can be sold for.

Pilikia:First of all, what's described in the article hasn't been considered a "reverse" commute in Chicago since the 1980s. That train left the station decades ago, if you'll pardon the pun. Secondly, the Metra/UPRR is a fast, comfotable way to get to work and the people quoted in TFA should quit their farking whining. An hour each morning and evening where you can read a book or play Texas Hold'em on your iPad guilt-free? Who wouldn't want that?

When I lived in Dallas many, many moons ago, the distance from my apartment to my office downtown was 15 miles. When there was no traffic, I could get to work in 15 minutes (no surprise...it was all freeway driving). However, if I tried to drive during rush hour, it would easily take me 1.5-2 hours each direction. And it was PAINFUL.

I eventually started leaving for work a couple hours before morning rush hour, usually around 6am. I'd then drive to the Denny's located about one block from my office, have some coffee, maybe a bite to eat, and read the paper. It sucked waking up so early, but it was far more pleasant and less stressful than hours of stop-and-go traffic.

BEER_ME_in_CT:I wish I was a city person, my commute would be almost zero. Unfortunately, I love to live out in the woods as far as possibly which equals a horrendous commute daily for me. Wish I could find a well paying job in the boonies. As soon as I do I will be alot happier. Why you would want to live in the city and commute out of it is beyond me.

Maybe get a small place in the city during the week, and keep a cabin out in the boonies for the weekends?

I have an hour commute each way. But that's because my husband's work and my work are 60 miles away from each other. We've chosen to have me commute, since he is working towards tenure, and I'm able to work from home one day per week (sometimes two). Once he makes tenure, we'll probably split the difference a bit.

nekom:Stop making up unnecessary words. This isn't "reverse" commuting, it's commuting. Unless you work from home you commute, no matter where that's to or from.

I'll have you know I have to go DOWN a flight of stairs for my morning coffee, then UP two flights of stairs to my home office computer. It's a brutal slog, made none the worse by inclement weather; generally, I have to wear slippers, because the slate floor down there is pretty chilly in winter.

Saul T. Balzac:BEER_ME_in_CT: I wish I was a city person, my commute would be almost zero. Unfortunately, I love to live out in the woods as far as possibly which equals a horrendous commute daily for me. Wish I could find a well paying job in the boonies. As soon as I do I will be alot happier. Why you would want to live in the city and commute out of it is beyond me.

Maybe get a small place in the city during the week, and keep a cabin out in the boonies for the weekends?

Seriously. And if you can't afford to own or rent two places just borrow money from your parents.

brantgoose:Reverse commuting sounds almost good to me. I've seen the highways during rush hour--backed up for blocks in one direction only with scarcely a car going the other way. If you're in the car going the other way, life is sweet, man!

It is not enough for that successful man that other people have to fail, they have to be seen to fail. To paraphrase a famous quip.

Mind you, I don't commute at all. I walk to and from work, 2.5 kilometers each way

mr. teeny works an hour away. He's had the job for 7 months now, and he stays at his parents house and commutes home Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays/Saturdays depending on if he has a project to finish.

It blows. It took us a few months to save for the money to move into a rental closer to his work, but the hunt for the actual house continues because finding the one that works for us that's in our budget is proving to be a major pain in the ass. For example, what the fark is up with the trend of a 4 bedroom house with a kitchen the size of a small bathroom and a food pantry the size of a grocery store endcap? And why are bedrooms so goddamn small that a bunk bed takes up 2/3 of the entire space? And somewhere along the line, someone decided that in a house with 4 bedrooms, a breakfast nook is sufficient dining space.

If we don't find something soon, we're just going to keep our current commuting system for a while longer and working towards buying a home instead. It's going to take longer, but we'll get more house paying a mortgage than rent.

I keep seeing this phrase pop up when people defend living in the city, as if people who are burdened with a commute - traveling to the city - are somehow incapable of traveling to some place, I don't know where, and doing things. Is it that suburbs are simply block-to-block residential districts , with no industry, manufacturing, commerce, entertainment, nothing but driveway and front lawn until you magically cross some threshold and you're "downtown", that also stop all travel except when you're going to work?

<sarcasm>Naw, they aren't biased at all.</sarcasm>

Look, there are some people that cherish a 'city life'. I know folks who don't own driver's license, much less a car, have never used the stove in their apartment, and the only thing in their fridge is liquor, soda, and bottled water. They parrot these things like badges of honor. They enjoy the fact that they treat nearly 100% of their income as disposable, and despite the higher costs for food, housing, reliance on public transport, and a disproportionately larger part of their budget spent on entertainment. Perhaps because they can go get drunk at bars and clubs and not have to drive home is enough to allow them to feel privileged and happy, even if it does mean paying yet more money for a taxi. Though in retrospect, I've seen a lot of people throw up on a subway...

There are also people who enjoy living away from constant noise, people, and traffic, who actually like to look at the night sky and see stars instead of just reflections of neon and billboards off glass-fronted skyscrapers. Folks who like being able to modify their house to suit their needs, to build a tree fort for their kids, to take a nice bike ride without having to suck exhaust and dodge both cars and people in a slow, lethal crawl. Maybe they live minutes or less from a river or lake, a forest, a mountain, a baseball diamond, a soccer field, a playground, schools not covered in graffiti,where neighbors, shopkeepers and even police smile and greet you by name. Property is half or less the cost of an apartment half the size or less. On the downside, almost nothing is less than a 15 minute round trip away.

Personally, I find the idea of having to share a wall with one or more other people an irritation - both to my own noise generation, as well as theirs. I find the idea of being beholden to a bus or train schedule fairly limiting, especially when it often takes multiple transfers and waits. Simply buying material goods is harder; I currently spend an hour a week shopping for the entire following week, but if I don't have a car, I'm limited to what I can carry in two hands and I have to spend 30 minutes to an hour every other day. Ever try to buy a couch in downtown NYC, or a bed mattress? (Note: do not be the guy in the office with a car, or worse, a truck - to you beggars, F-off, coworkers are not your delivery service. Pay 100$ for that, take a day off work for the delivery window and wait 4 weeks for your lack of foresight and life decisions).

Yeah, there's compromises to be made, like a commute and living with an HOA, and lawn mowing, and so on - but there's compromises in the other direction too. It all comes down to priorities. I can't argue for the city life in this case, but that's because I'm biased against it. My priorities are in the other direction. Still, at least I'm aware that I'm completely biased, and don't claim my opinions or personal experience are facts or apples-to-apples comparisons.

Rent Party:bopis: Rent Party: Chicago is one of the few midwestern cities I'd move to, primarily because of the CTA. I love those trains, and it's a great town.

I used to love the CTA until I had to use it everyday.

I just spent a week in Oak Park, and rode the green line into the city center and back every day. All I could think was "man, I could do this every day."

What happens if you do that every day for months on end?

Well, if you're me, you get a lot of reading done. I mean, a LOT of reading. I spend about an hour on the L every work day. Over the past few years, I've read War and Peace, Les Miserables, Buddenbrooks, a selection of novels by James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, and Dashiell Hammett, various non-fiction works, and the Bible. As a result, I am now, officially, better than everyone else. I look at other people on the train who sit there with their hands folded on their laps, doing absolutely nothing, and I weep silently for them.